“The problem faced by many patients is that they did not grow up in a reasonably healthy, normal family. They grew up in an inconsistent, abusive and traumatic family. The very people to whom the child had to attach for survival, were also abuse perpetrators and hurt him or her badly [...] The basic conflict, the deepest pain, and the deepest source of symptoms, is the fact that mom and dad’s behavior hurts, did not fit together, and did not make sense”.

In Schizophrenia: an Innovative Approach to Diagnosis and Treatment (2004), Ross determines that some patients diagnosed with schizophrenia have symptoms related to Dissociative identity disorder(pdf).

In 1975, Silvano Arieti won the American National Book Award in the field of science for his book, Interpretation of Schizophrenia, which advances a psychological model for understanding all the regressive types of the disorder.[3] Critics of the model argue that the logic of the claim that childhood trauma causes insanity demonstrates a serious flaw. If the claim were true, critics contend, the abuse of millions of children over the years should have caused many cases of insanity; but no evidence exists. Decades before Ross, Arieti had addressed this line of argumentation, stating that the only persons before whom young human beings are vulnerable are the ones to whom they are emotionally bonded in childhood. A passage of Interpretation of Schizophrenia, originally published in 1955, sheds light on the heart of the trauma model:

“First of all we have to repeat here what we already mentioned [...], that conditions of obvious external danger, as in the case of wars, disasters, or other adversities that affect the collectivity, do not produce the type of anxiety that hurts the inner self and do not themselves favor schizophrenia. Even extreme poverty, physical illness, or personal tragedies do not necessarily lead to schizophrenia unless they have psychological ramifications that hurt the sense of self. Even homes broken by death, divorce or desertion may be less destructive than homes where both parents are alive, live together, and always undermine the child’s conception of himself”.

In more recent years, psychologist Alice Miller, author of twelve books on mental distress and disorders, including non-psychiatric conditions like falling prey of cults, has informed future parents and former victims about the disastrous consequences of child abuse. Former schizophrenic patients, such as John Modrow, have also endorsed the views of the pioneers of the trauma models.[4] Presently, psychohistorians also endorse trauma models of schizoid, narcissist, masochist, borderline, depressive personalities. [5]